A leading cause of traffic accidents is related to drivers who fall asleep or even just doze for a fraction of a second during driving. When a person is driving for long periods of time, at certain conditions such as hot weather or a boring road, or at certain hours such as after lunch or late night, there is significant chance that the driver's attention will decrease, which can lead to serious consequences.
Many approaches have been suggested to overcome this problem. Some approaches evaluate the driver's physical condition, for example by measuring the driver's head position or slope and generating an alert when the angle between the driver's head and his chest is below a predetermined value. Other approaches may evaluate other body parameters of the driver such as heart rate, or the like. However, such methods may fail to significantly increase security since the driver may become inattentive or fall asleep before a physical expression can be detected.
Other approaches may try and evaluate the driver's driving manner, for example detect sharp lane deviations, or the like.
It is well known that a good solution for keeping the driver awake is for the driver to engage in a conversation with another person, whether with a person present in the car or over the phone. However, this is not always a possibility.